Behind the Science

Polaris systems are built upon a solid scientific foundation. The development team has included some of the nation’s leading researchers, including Polaris co-founder Dr. Kenneth Howard. All Polaris systems have been reviewed by panels of independent scientists. All have received funding support from the National Institutes of Health following a rigorous, competitive review process. All involve collaboration of researchers, clinicians, statisticians and software development specialists, and extensive field testing in a wide range of treatment programs.

Here’s why good science matters:

✔ Polaris patient reports help clinicians plan and monitor treatment.

Clinicians can be confident in their accuracy. Every scale used to evaluate patient progress has been scientifically validated, and meets or exceeds established criteria for reliability.

✔ Polaris patient reports alert clinicians to patients at risk.

Like other systems, Polaris reports document risk factors acknowledged by the patient, such as risk for suicide or alcoholism. In addition, proprietary Polaris predictive algorithms help clinicians identify patients that are unlikely to respond well to standard treatment, or experience other adverse outcomes such as dropout or hospitalization.

✔ Polaris data help providers improve and document clinical quality.

Quality improvement requires comparison of patient clinical outcomes over time, or across programs. Raw outcomes data unadjusted for patient characteristics are of limited use. For example, a severely mentally ill patient that also abuses substances is unlikely to achieve the same level of clinical outcome as a less severe patient with fewer complications. It is pointless to compare their outcomes without adjusting for these conditions. Polaris data are severity adjusted to provide valid, “apples to apples” comparisons, using proprietary algorithms based upon thousands of patient assessments.

Polaris presentations at numerous scientific and practitioner conferences have been consistently well-received, as have staff articles published in prestigious peer-reviewed journals. The science at the core of Polaris products will help your organization stand out with all its stakeholders, including your clients, and with accreditation and regulatory agencies.

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